Encyclical of Gennadius of Constantinople

When our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ entrusted to His holy disciples the preaching of the Gospel, and sent them forth as teachers to mankind and to the whole world, He most plainly commanded that what they had received as a gift, that same they must likewise give to men as a gift, seeking for it neither copper, nor silver, nor gold, nor indeed any material or earthly recompense whatsoever; for heavenly and spiritual gifts admit of no exchange for things earthly and perishable. And this commandment He gave not to them alone, but through them to us also, whom He has vouchsafed to set in their rank and in their place. We ought, then, just as they did then, so now most diligently to keep and observe that commandment, and not to speculate about what ought not to be speculated about, nor to cast ourselves upon a ruinous throw of the dice. “Freely,” saith He, “ye have received, freely give; provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses” (Matt. 10:8-9). Plain and clear is the word of this commandment, and it has in it nothing tangled, nothing obscure, nothing that would require artful interpretation. “From Me,” saith He, “ye have received the dignity of the priesthood; and if for it you had paid Me little or much, and I had sold it to you, then sell it likewise to others in your turn; but if you received it as a gift, give it, you too, as a gift.” Is there anything clearer than this commandment? And what is more profitable for those who obey it? Woe indeed to those who imagine that they can obtain the gift of God for money, or give it to others for money, for such are found, in the words of holy Peter, “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23), overtaken by their own love of money; and in accord with this is the law of the Lord and the canon of the holy and blessed Fathers of the holy and great Ecumenical Council assembled at Chalcedon, which is plainly set before us in the following words: “Whatever bishop performs an ordination for money, and turns into an object of sale the grace that cannot be sold, and for money appoints a bishop, or chorepiscopus, or presbyter, or deacon, or any other numbered among the clergy, or out of vile greed for gain makes someone an oeconomus, or an ecdicus, or a paramonarius, or any other whatsoever who is reckoned within the canon, and it is proven that he has indeed done this—let him be deposed from his own rank; and let him who has been so appointed have no benefit whatever from the purchased ordination or appointment, but let him be reckoned as having neither the dignity nor the office which he obtained with money. And whoever has been a go-between in so foul and unlawful a traffic—such a one, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed from his rank; if he is a layman or a monk, let him be anathema.”

Especially excellent and most pious are the ordinances of this canon of the holy Fathers, which cut off and root out every satanic assault, every diabolical attempt directed against the spiritual gift, for it altogether forbids that the rite of ordination be given or received for money, and this it forbids equally to the one who performs it and to the one who receives the rite of ordination. Nor does it permit, even before the time of ordination, that money be given for ordination, for even in such dealing there is manifest bribery. — But since now, alongside these so plain ordinances, there were nevertheless found some in Galatia who, out of vile greed for gain and out of love of money, disregard and transgress these saving and humane ordinances, we, together with the holy Council residing in this imperial New Rome, have judged it good to renew these same ordinances, so that, without any contrivance, without any pretext, without any cunning speculation, this impious and foul custom—which has crept, I know not how, into the most holy churches—might be wholly cut off; so that at a proclamation entirely free of all trafficking and pure, made by the bishops, the grace of the Holy Spirit might descend from above upon those who are ordained; since now, when the appointment is made for money and is carried out by an unclean hand, I do not know whether, at the proclamation made, the grace of the Holy Spirit descends upon the one ordained, or whether it is rather thereby withheld from him. Know, then, most pious in all things, that whoever he may be who is found in anything of the kind—whether bishop, or chorepiscopus, or periodeutes, or presbyter, or deacon, or any other who is reckoned within the canon, or a layman—he is condemned by the common ordinance and common judgment of the bishops, as also the aforecited canon of the holy Fathers declares; for grace ought indeed to be grace, and silver ought in no way to mediate it. Let him, then, be, as indeed he is, excluded and stripped of every priestly dignity and office, and let him lie under the curse of anathema—both the one who holds that grace can be obtained with money, and the one who promises to give it for money—whether he be cleric or layman, whether it has been proven that he did this or has not been proven; for it is impossible that what does not admit of union should be joined together, nor that God should be brought into accord with mammon, nor that those who serve mammon should also serve God; and the word of the Lord on this is irrefutable: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24). Trusting in these words according to our strength, and submitting to them together with Him who spoke them, we have set forth this decision against those who transgress them. Let your holiness too take care, applying to it all diligence, that through copies of this our circular letter this may become generally known to all the bishops and periodeutae subject to you, and to all the rest; that all we Christians together, gathered in one spirit and one soul against the common enemy, may be able, with God’s help, to tear out utterly the root of love of money, together with all its evil shoots. — We greet all the brethren who are with thee in Christ. Strengthened in the Lord, pray for us, most God-loving brother.

[Ap. 15, 19; Laodicea 12; Sardica 2; Basil the Great 90; Tarasius’ encyclical.] — This encyclical, as we have said (I, 35), was issued at the Council of Constantinople in 529 under the presidency of Patriarch Gennadius, and is addressed, as stated in the title of the encyclical itself, to all the metropolitans, and in particular to the Roman Pope (πρὸς τὸν πάπαν Ῥώμης). By appeal to the relevant passages of Holy Scripture and to canon 2 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the encyclical condemns simony, and it subjects to deposition every cleric found guilty of simony, and to anathema every layman charged with simony.